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Now there are plenty of investors who no doubt did very well for themselves shorting names like those while they languished, but in the current environment the risk/reward is simply tilted against the bears, both on the market and individual stocks.

Seth Setrakian, co-head of U.S. equity trading at First New York Securities, said he agrees with much of Tepper’s sentiment, but remains wary. “I’m playing along,” he says, “but I’m on high alert.”

He says some of the stocks he liked earlier in the year – names like CitigroupCitigroup, GM and AIG – have simply outperformed his expectations and gotten too rich for him to dive back into. Meanwhile, for all the hand-wringing that comes when a heavily-shorted stock falls, Setrakian equates the current environment to almost a bull raid on the stocks the bears are tilted most heavily against.

Another to watch: Coinstar. Short interest was nearly half the company’s shares outstanding at the end of April, even after a strong first-quarter earnings report and an upbeat forecast.

Astec Analytics, which tracks securities lending data in real time, noted this week that demand to short the stock has fallen of late, but the significant existing short interest could prove to be a springboard with any positive surprises out of the maker of Redbox DVD kiosks.

Dan Miller, who owns Coinstar in the Gabelli Focus Five Fund, thinks the shorts, which have seized on a drop in free cash flow to make their case, will be proven wrong as the company optimizes its footprint following the acquisition of about 9,000 Blockbuster-branded kiosks in 2012.

That short squeeze may not be imminent though, even as the trend seems to be jumping from stock to stock at a breakneck pace. In fact, Setrakian thinks the latest action, and the corresponding attention to it, may be something of a contrarian indicator that the long-awaited pause is finally coming.

“A month ago all you heard was pullback, pullback,” says Setrakian, now all he hears is about Japan’s central bank and the Federal Reserve’s open-ended QE keeping the party going and it feels like things have gotten too easy.

Still, there are reasonable opportunities to make money as long as you avoid getting too caught up in the macro picture, citing breakups and spinoffs that have come to market, shorting Tesla after its run and buying AppleApple in the doldrums as short-term trades he would expect to pay off.

Tesla’s one-month chart. Can you spot the squeeze? TSLA data by YCharts

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